When the Spontaneous Shakespeare Company takes the stage at the 2025 Victoria Fringe Festival, audiences won’t be seeing Hamlet or Macbeth – but they will witness a brand-new Shakespearean play, conjured on the spot and inspired by a real-life moment from someone in the crowd.
“Everything is improvised,” explains Artistic Director Brent Hirose. “We ask an audience member for a minor tragedy or triumph – something like, ‘I stubbed my toe,’ or ‘I found 10 bucks in the couch.’ Then we ask them: shall we turn this into a tragedy or a triumph?”
The result is Tragedy or Triumph, a fully improvised, hour-long Shakespearean play, complete with rhyming couplets, grand soliloquies and iambic pentameter –all made up on the spot.
For the Victoria Fringe, a cast of six will perform five shows over the festival’s two weekends. The format remains simple: one audience story, turned into one epic play.
Founded in Vancouver in 2016 as Shakespeare After Dark, Spontaneous Shakespeare Company was the brainchild of Zach Wolfman and Chelsey Stuyt. After a COVID-induced hiatus, founding member Brent Hirose stepped in as Artistic Director. Under his leadership, the company has toured widely, performing at fringe and improv festivals across North America, from Orlando to Vancouver, and now, for the first time, Victoria.
Improvising Shakespeare isn’t easy – it’s part theatre, part tightrope act.
"I describe improv as being like a juggling act,” Hirose says. “You’re telling a story, creating characters, keeping details straight – and when you add Shakespeare, you’re juggling even more. You’re adding genre knowledge, rhythm, meter and rhyme.”
The company drills in iambic pentameter regularly. “It’s like musicianship,” he says. “Eventually it gets into your body.”
More than parody, Hirose says the goal is to offer something that feels genuinely Shakespearean.
“Our ultimate goal is that the audience walks away feeling as if they have seen a heretofore lost Shakespearean play. To walk away being like, ‘Oh my god, that was exactly as Shakespeare would have written it. It was so artistic, it was so poetic, it was so beautiful.’ That is our goal.”
“We like to describe our show as being approachable both for, you know, huge Shakespeare heads and novices alike,” he adds. “So if you are a Shakespeare scholar, the things that you'll be taking out of it is a lot of thematic similarities – tropes of Shakespeare – not necessarily actual lines.”
He adds, “Ultimately, what happens because it’s improvised is a bunch of silly stuff happens as well… and I think one of the things people really take away is a stronger appreciation for both improv and for Shakespeare – which is really our goal.”
Fringe Fest Preview
Victoria Fringe Festival returns Aug. 20 to 31, starting with a free outdoor event at Market Square.
The Aug. 20 “Fringe Eve Preview” features two-minute teasers. “It’s like a movie trailer, but live,” the festival says on its website.
Nearly 30 shows will be presented across downtown venues and Market Square. Other highlights include the Fringe Club with nightly social events – cabaret, drag, trivia, karaoke – and FringeKids Fest (Aug. 24 and 25), offering drag storytime, crafts and performances.
The Victoria Fringe Festival is produced by Intrepid Theatre and remains true to CAFF principles: unjuried, uncensored and 100 per cent of ticket revenue goes straight to artists.
Tickets go on sale Aug. 1, including a required $5 Fringe Button, with most performances priced at $13 to 15. Multi-show passes like the 5‑show “Munch Card” or 10‑show “Frequent Fringer” are available. All ticket revenue supports the artists directly.
Learn more at intrepidtheatre.com
